DECEMBER '07 ACTION PROJECT
As we all know, we are in the holiday season. For so many of us this is a time of excitement and joy. But for many people right in our communities it is a time of anxiety and an even bigger reminder of their struggle. This month instead of choosing just one thing we will do, we are leaving it a little open ended because during this season there is just so much that we can do. Here are some action projects you can do this month. The first thing you may choose to do is to give gifts to children in need. You can give them to the major gift drives such as Angel Tree and Toys for Tots, or you can more directly meet the needs of your community by going to a local school in a low income area, a church or hospital. The neat thing about giving through a venue such as a school is that the social workers in the school know the needs of the children. Often they have lists of families that without our donations will have nothing for Christmas. If you are planning on giving gifts, I would strongly recommend starting on this project ASAP as gifts are often distributed by the middle of December. If you don't have the ability to give gifts, you can find somewhere to volunteer your time. There is an abundance of places to volunteer all the time, but it is especially meaningful during this season as it is a season that so many individuals feel invisible. We have the ability to give of our time and attention to let them know that they are worthy of life and love. Here are some suggestions for where you and your friends can volunteer your time: a homeless shelter, nursing home, soup kitchen, a children's hospital, or volunteer to wrap gifts for a gift drive, and the list goes on and on. I would like to quickly note that if you are planning on volunteering it would be wise to call ahead to make sure that you can.
-------------------------------
NOVEMBER '07 ACTION PROJECT
The November action project is focusing on the clean water epidemic. You may want to go read up more about clean water on the issues page of The Love Alliance website and from the clean water sites listed in the links section of the website. The reason we are focusing on clean water for the month of November is because while in our part of the world we are just coming on our cold months, in the parts of the world that clean water is the biggest problem (such as sub-Saharan Africa) they are just about to come on some of the hottest months of their year because they are below the equator. The November action project is a loose change drive for clean water. Cut a slot in the top of a water bottle (small/gallon sized & recycled) and collect loose change to help aid those who are dying of thirst. When it comes to clean water every penny counts, just $1 will give clean water to an African dying of thirst for an entire year. We understand that sometimes individuals can get overwhelmed when it comes to raising money. We want to emphasize that this is not about raising more money than anyone else. Rather it is about informing people and saving lives. Even if you only raise $1 next month, you have potentially saved one persons life. We encourage you to get creative with this months project. At the end of the month you can send your final checks made out to "The Love Alliance" with "1000 Wells Project" written in the memo to: The Love Alliance, 1542 South Wickham Rd., West Melbourne FL 32904. Then we will be making one grand total donation to Blood:Water Missions 1000 Wells Project. While we are planning on putting our own wells in Africa one day, we strongly believe in the work that Blood:Water Mission is doing and want to support their efforts as The Love Alliance the best we can. To read more about Blood: Water Mission you can go to www.bloodwatermission.com.
-------------------------------
OCTOBER '07 ACTION PROJECT
October is Fair Trade month. Fair trade products are products that have been produced by non-exploited workers. Unfortunately exploited workers, many of which are enslaved and/or children, have produced many of the products in our stores. This month we are taking a stand as a community to say that buying products from factories that exploit human beings is not acceptable. We encourage you to look at the products you buy this month and if it has been made in South America or other known exploitation areas? Does it have a Fair Trade Certified seal on it? This month while shopping we encourage you to find the fair trade alternative. Choose to buy sweatshop free clothes. Decide that you will not drink coffee or chocolate that was made a few cents cheaper by the blood sweat and tears of exploited human beings. If a coffee shop or a store in your area does not offer fair trade alternatives then suggest in writing that they do. Make them aware of the atrocity they are supporting by not offering fair trade alternatives. We encourage groups to focus on this project together. Turn your communities into fair trade communities. Make the people of your community aware of the exploitation of workers around the world. For more information on slavery in the world and a list of fair trade alternatives visit the Enslaved section in the Issues section of our website. You can also visit www.transfairusa.org for a list of stores that sell fair trade products.
-------------------------------
SEPTEMBER '07 ACTION PROJECT
This month we are having a fall cleaning, The Love Alliance style. We all have things, lots of things, so many things that we don't even know what we have. This month lets go through our stuff and give away anything that we no longer wear, use or want. 36.5 million people in the alone are living in poverty. We have the ability to ease these struggling individuals burden. What we give they will not have to buy, allowing them to hopefully get ahead. Let's have fun with this months project. Weigh everything that you are donating email us back with your totals. Then, so long as everyone remembers to send us their weights we can have a grand total of the impact we are having as a community of people who are committing to making a difference towards social injustice. For a list of places to donate your items visit www.justgive.org.
-------------------------------
AUGUST '07 ACTION PROJECT
As all monthly projects, we wanted this project to be simple enough that anyone from any walk of life can participate. There is so much injustice in the world that it is extremely easy for our hearts to get lost in Africa forgetting that there are not only hurting people in Africa but they also live in our very own communities. If we are only saddened by suffering over seas and not by the suffering on our own streets then our desire to help will never last because likely it is a desire to get involved with a cause rather than the human being the cause is representing. Human suffering is human suffering no matter where it is, we must not stand for it in any part of the world, especially in our own communities. So with that said, this month our project will be addressing an injustice that is in every community of the world, homelessness. At least one day this month we encourage each of you to go out with a group of friends and hand out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to hungry homeless people. We should all have the supplies in our houses to make these, but if not it will only cost max $5 to make a bunch of sandwiches. We encourage you when you go out to not just hand the sandwiches to the people and run, but to stick around and talk to them. For more information on homelessness visit the Homeless section of our website under our Issues page.